Posted on 09/30/2019 4:08:25 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I’ve had a request from Freeper MomwithHope to post this month on ‘Hearty Fall Fare’ - and even though it’s still hot here in DC, with Wednesday threatening record-breaking temperatures, the leaves are falling and the trees are beginning to morph into their Autumn glory. We can smell Fall.
One of my first posts to FR, before I officially began this cooking thread, was about Virginia Peanut Soup. I can still remember how surprised I was on tasting it - while there was little in the soup other than peanuts, it was so rich and the flavor so unexpected. I originally posted a link to a recipe that was non-dairy:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/virginia-peanut-soup/14444/
But here is a recipe, enriched with cream, from the King’s Arms Tavern in Williamsburg:
https://www.history.org/Almanack/life/food/fdpnutsp.cfm
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I’ve been interested in things to do with nuts, and recently remembered a recipe for spiced nuts from ‘Russel Wright's Menu Cookbook’, written by the industrial designer’s daughter, Ann Wright, from her memories of growing up; these would go nicely with drinks in front of your first hearth fire of the season:
Margaret Spader’s Chinese Spiced Walnuts
6 C. Water
2 C. Walnut Halves
½ C. Sugar
1 tsp. Hot Pepper Flakes
2 C. Salad Oil (any vegetable oil without a really pronounced flavor.)
Kosher Salt to Taste
Bring water to a boil in a 2-qt heavy saucepan. Add walnuts, reheat to boiling, and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Drain in a colander, rinse under hot running water, and shake to drain well.
Turn the walnuts into a bowl, add the sugar and pepper flakes, and toss to coat the nuts.
In a heavy bottomed saucepan or electric skillet, heat the oil to 350 degrees. (Oil should be about 1 inch deep.)
Add half the walnuts, stirring occasionally, and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on a cloth towel (not paper as the hot nuts have a tendency to stick) or place the nuts in a colander over a deep bowl, so that the oil drains off. Sprinkle lightly with salt and toss gently to keep nuts from sticking together.
Fry the remaining walnuts. Keep tightly covered, these should keep for 1 to 2 months in the refrigerator. Makes 4-1/2 cups.
If you’re into Low-Carb/Keto/Paleo, here is a savory spiced nut without sugar:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/spiced-mixed-nuts-3058563
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Also from The Spruce Family, here are some clever but easy patterns for carving jack-o-lanterns:
https://www.thespruce.com/free-jack-o-lantern-patterns-4061776
(The painting at the beginning of this post is Camille Pissarro's 'Harvest', 1882.)
-JT
TOLL HOUSE CUPCAKES
ING Cookie Base cup plus 2 Tb flour, unsifted ½ tsp ea baking soda, salt ½ cup butter 6 Tb ea sugar 6 Tbsp firmly-packed brown sugar ½ tsp vanilla extract 1 egg
METHOD combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Beat in egg. Blend in flour mixture. Spoon one rounded Tbsp of mixture each into greased or paper lined muffin cups. Bake 375 deg 15 min. Remove from oven. Set aside.
TOPPING ING ½ cup firmly-packed brown sugar 1 egg ½ tsp salt cup Nestle semi-sweet chocolate morsels ½ cup chp nuts ½ tsp vanilla
Increase oven to 425 deg. Now prepare topping: In separate bowl, combine brown sugar, egg and salt. Beat at high til thick. (About five min) Stir in semi-sweet morsels, nuts and vanilla. Spread topping over partially baked cupcakes. Bake for ten more minutes. Cool completely before removing from tins.
(HAT TIP JT)
There is a wonderful gold-leaf-looking paint that Martha Stewart used in some of her earlier magazine projects -
it looks really *gold* - nice to paint pine cones and leaves for a centerpiece. (I put in the crafts-to-try box, but haven’t used ;-)
also ‘Rub-n-Buf, a waxy paste that's rubbed on, like real metal, in many colors......brought back some lovely old picture frames.
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One of my fave Martha projects---she gilded ceramic turkeys.
I’m from South Chicago.
Every weekend in the summer when I was a bitty thing, my garlic, lamb loving, Grands took us to Greek picnics.
I didn’t find out until the 1st grade that’s not what every American did on Sunday’s!!!
Still don’t what hominy is.
P.s. If there is a Greek picnic out here, I go. The BEST!!!
Absolutely. It was probably at a greek church. We were raised Catholic but Dad was Orthodox. So we went to Mass and then the church picnic, plenty of lamb. It was St. Michaels on the EAst Sie. They moved several years ago out to the suburbs. Those picnics were the best. I had never seen a priest dancing before. I was amazed - I was very young.
Going to add these to my Christmas cookie lists! Make about 25 dozen of them. Been giving them to friends, family, co-workers, neighbors for decades. Most of them came from my grandmother.
Started into cooking mode this weekend.
I’m in charge of all the Thanksgiving stuff except the turkey and I have to take it all to Asheville, 8ish hours away. (My mom hates cooking and ain’t to good at it, so my brothers cornered me years ago and asked me to bring the sides and deserts. She stopped to doing the turkey after a few years and was serving KFC chicken until my nephew-in-law took over!)
Gonna spend the next couple hours reviewing J’s cooking thread for new ideas.
Insert cookies....foldover top. Punch two holes to close with ribbon.
Dangle a snowflake or glittering Christmas star from the ribbon.
We used to do cookie exchanges where I worked before retirement. I would always print out a cute recipe card with a Christmas border, paper punch a hole in it and add it to the ribbon bow over the cellophane.
Nice........giving out the recipe w/ the cookie.
Nice........giving out the recipe w/ the cookie.
At first I was surprised no one else did it, but that changed. At these things people are always asking for the recipes anyway, then you have to remember to get back with them.
Liver Pate
2 oz. butter
1 medium onion chopped
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 pound chicken or turkey livers
4 oz. bacon chopped
pinch of dried mixed herbs
1 tbls. brown sugar
salt and pepper
Melt butter and fry onion and garlic until soft
add the livers and bacon, fry gently for 5-10 minutes
add the herbs, sugar and seasoning, simmer for 10 minutes then let cool
Puree in Cuisinart until smooth.
Chill and serve with hot toast
All this being said, this has always gotten rave reviews and I have been making it for over 20 years. I usually double or triple the recipe, save up some small plastic containers, like the ones herb cheese come in. I freeze the pate in containers and thaw when desired. It freezes well and I can enjoy it through the winter or give some away. I have always loved liver and liver pate, sometimes what a restaurant serves is just too light on liver flavor. So you really need to like liver to have this. If you don't like a strong liver flavor you can always add some cream cheese when pureeing. Which I never do.
Post 101-—Toll House Cupcakes-—travel well.
A sturdy, delicious treat——no worries about gooey frosting slipping and sticking to wrappers.
W/ offset spatula, spread gently melted white chocolate into parchmented sheetpan.
Drizzle w/ 2 tb seedless raspberry jam (stir vigorously to thin out) .....
or use sieved mashed fresh rasberries.
W/ skewer, swirl berries thru chocolate. Firm at room temp 2-3 hours.
Cut desired shapes and sizes; then peel off parchment.
SERVE in fluted candy cases.
My husband would like that a lot - if we left out the caraway. For some reason, he doesn’t like that.
I made it once without the caraway as we did not have any it still tasted great.
P.s.
You want to be sure to get ‘calf beef liver’.
I have a great recipe, an old Pennsylvania Anabaptist one; it uses cabbage, sour cream, red wine vinegar, and caraway.
Husband Unit insists that I leave out the caraway. To me, it’s still good, but lacking an important dimension.
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